2021 Neighborhood & Home

THE MCCOURT MANSION IN DENVER’S CAPITOL HILL

The McCourt Mansion is an excellent example of Classical Revival Style, designed by one of Denver’s most notable architecture firms at the turn of the twentieth century: Varian and Sterner. Its grand architecture and construction reflects the city’s wealthy elite that occupied Capitol Hill in the late 1800s.

The property’s first owners/residents – from 1897 to 1909 – were Harvard and DU-educated lawyer Richard Hart and his wife Elizabeth, a key figure in the founding of the Denver Symphony Orchestra. (Richard and Elizabeth’s son, Stephen Hart, was co-founder of renowned law firm, Holland & Hart.)

In 1909, Peter and Emma McCourt purchased the property. Emma was a well-respected socialite and Denver philanthropist, whose charitable work helped many struggling and impoverished families to financial solvency. Peter McCourt was the younger brother of Elizabeth Bonduel McCourt, more famously known as “Baby Doe Tabor”, wife of “Silver King” Horace Tabor. From his employment as the assistant manager of the Tabor Grand Opera House in 1883 until his death in 1929, Peter McCourt was the leading theater manager in Denver.

denver’s capitol hill neighborhood

The neighborhood was originally the home of Denver's elite who constructed elaborate mansions. As the economy of Denver slumped after the Silver Crash of 1893, construction in Capitol Hill concentrated on apartments. Three buildings still in existence are examples of the architecture of this time: The Colonnade, Alta Court (currently an office building), and the Hamilton. This cultural and demographic shift, from single-family mansions toward boarding houses and rental property for the transient middle class, marked a shift toward the present multi-family dominance of the neighborhood.

Capitol Hill remained a solid middle-class neighborhood until after World War II, when middle-class families left Capitol Hill. The demographics of people left behind were transients and renters.

Another watershed in the history of Capitol hill was the completion of Interstate 70. No longer did incoming tourists drive down East Colfax Avenue on their way into downtown. The tourist dollar was effectively wiped out as a revenue source for East Colfax after this decade. So began another downward spiral. With no tourists to spend money along East Colfax the businesses suffered, as did the demand to go to Capitol Hill.

The affordability, urban character and eclectic architecture made the area appealing to young bohemians, artists, musicians (Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg were former neighborhood residents) which has led to a gradual gentrification that reached its height during the 2000s. The rents in the neighborhood have increased significantly over the past decade, and many of the cheap apartments in the area have been converted into more expensive condominiums. Nonetheless the neighborhood has an older housing stock which lacks off-street parking, contributing to a relative affordability compared to other central neighborhoods.

Currently many portions of East Colfax Avenue are undergoing redevelopment to make them denser and more pedestrian-friendly. Despite these redevelopment efforts, a brief stroll along Colfax Avenue through the Capitol Hill neighborhood will provide a glimpse of its history.

In 2012 the state history museum of Colorado, the History Colorado Center, was opened next to the new Colorado State Judiciary building.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitol_Hill,_Denver

Click here to see photos and the 2020 Virtual Holiday Tour.